"Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters" ranked top in North America

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 26 (Xinhua) -- Actor Jeremy Renner managed to finish as the top grossing star over the weekend, though his latest film "Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters," opened with a disappointing note.

The Paramount and MGM's R-rated 3D fairy tale pic, also featuring "Quantum of Solace" and "Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time" star Gemma Arterton, is projected to rake up 16 million U.S. dollars in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, less than what the executives in distributor Paramount has expected -- about 25 million dollars. However, this still helped the flick to finish as the top grossing film in a slow weekend.

The movie, which cost 50 million dollars to make, failed to win over audiences on the first day of screening, as they gave it a "B " CinemaScore.

Finishing in the second spot over the weekend was "Mama," actress Jessica Chastain's vehicle, which is predicted to roll up 12.5 million dollars this weekend. The Universal PG-13 horror flick has grossed 48.3 million dollars in sold tickets in two weeks.

Placing in the third spot was "Silver Linings Playbook," which would take in 8.7 million dollars during the Friday-Sunday time frame. The dark comedy is on track to gross 68.2 million dollars in tickets over 11 weeks of screening.

"Zero Dark Thirty" was placed in the fourth place, grossing 8.5 million dollars. The political thriller featuring the United States' decade-long pursuit of al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden has grossed 68.6 million dollars over six weeks.

Rounding out the 10 most popular films this weekend in North America, as estimated by the studios and collated by boxoffice.com, were "Parker" (debuting at 6.5 million dollars); "Movie 43" ( debuting at 4.6 million); "Django Unchained" (4.5 million); " Gangster Squad" (3.9 million); "Les Miserables" (3.8 million), and "Broken City" (3.6 million).